Generally, this invention relates to a system for creating hardened structural forms made out of a fill material such as concrete. Specifically, the invention includes methods and apparatus for placing forming structures that are used to create such hardened forms. The invention is particularly suited for aerial transportation of forming structures to create high-rise building structures.
The use of insulating concrete forms to create concrete building structures increasingly is becoming a popular choice for building in the construction industry. Using insulating concrete forms as a building method typically involves placing a concrete form having a hollow interior into which concrete can be poured. Upon hardening, the concrete provides a hardened form that can be used as a component of a building structure, for example, a wall. In the case of insulating concrete forms, the form itself may be made out of an insulating material or have an insulating material attached. After the concrete hardens, the insulating material can be left in place, resulting in a hardened structure with both the building properties of concrete and the insulating properties of the form.
When compared to traditional building methods, such as wood framing, the use of insulating concrete forms offers many attractive advantages. Building structures made out of concrete typically are more durable and long-lasting than their non-concrete counterparts. This can be an important consideration in areas prone to natural events such as hurricanes or earthquakes. Concrete building structures also may require a reduced time and cost for maintenance than building structures made using other types of building methods. In the case of insulating concrete forms, the insulating properties of the form add further benefits such as increased energy efficiency and noise reduction within the interior of the building structure. Further, the popularity of this kind of building method may only increase as advances are made in the state of the art. For example, concrete may no longer be the fill material of choice as other kinds of fill materials are explored, and insulating forms may no longer be required as other methods of insulation may be developed.
Despite these advantages, building with fill materials still entails significant problems related to efficiency and cost-effectiveness that largely have not been overcome. One problem posed by conventional fill material building methods relates to the method of placing forms. Many techniques still rely on manual labor to individually place forms one at a time. This entails significant drawbacks including large work crews required to perform this labor-intensive task and extended periods of time in which to accomplish placement of the forms. Certain improvements over manual labor techniques have been realized in the field. For example, the use of a crane to place forms has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,553, as well as in various industry publications and proprietary websites. While the use of a crane does reduce the size of the work crew needed and increases the rate at which forms may be placed, it is somewhat remarkable that none of the foregoing applications has realized the full potential to which a crane may be used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,553 is limited to the use of a crane to place interior room forms within a pre-established outside perimeter wall form. This type of technique relies on using forms fabricated into shapes and configurations for use on a particular job and overlooks the benefit of using standardized forms that can be assembled into a variety of configurations. However, even techniques using standardized forms have failed to appreciate the full capabilities of using a crane. For example, some industry publications and websites merely disclose using a crane to transport a pallet of forms to a site of assembly. While this reduces some of the labor and time costs associated with placing forms by increasing the efficiency of transporting forms to an assembly site, manual labor with all of its drawbacks may be still required to place the forms at the assembly site. Finally, even techniques in which a crane is used to place a form have until now failed to fully understand the potential to which a crane may be used. For example, some proprietary websites actually illustrate a form connected to a crane with a caption stating that the particular crane advertised is ideal for handling gang forms. Nevertheless, no disclosure is made of a joined form connected to a crane. This collection of seemingly unattached forms is then moved to a placement location.
Another problem posed by conventional fill material building methods relates to the pre-assembly of forms. Building methods involving fill materials frequently call for placing metal reinforcement bars, or rebar, within a form to strengthen the final hardened form. Many techniques for placing rebar require using manual labor at an installation location. Again, this may entail significant drawbacks, perhaps including large work crews required to perform this labor-intensive task and extended periods of time in which to accomplish placement of the rebar. This technique may fail to appreciate the value of preloading rebar into a form and placing the form at an installation location with rebar already loaded. However, while certain industry publications and propriety websites acknowledge the value of preloading rebar, even these sources fail to fully appreciate the full benefit of how this may be accomplished. For example, certain proprietary websites illustrate a crane lifting a pallet of forms with loaded rebar to a location for placement at an assembly site. Again, however, this method requires manual labor with all of its associated drawbacks to place the forms once they reach the assembly site.
A further problem relates to placing forms on high-rise structures. Construction techniques for building high-rise structures frequently employ cranes, and some industry publications and proprietary websites indicate the use of a crane to lift forms to a high-rise location or perhaps more than one story above the ground. However, even these sources may to some degree fail to fully appreciate the degree to which one might be able to increase the efficiency of high-rise construction. Consequently, these techniques have failed to fully appreciate the usefulness of a crane in fill material building methods at high-rise locations.
Yet another problem relates to bracing forms that have been placed. Typically, a placed form requires bracing to hold it in place against, for example, wind loads that may develop on the cross-sectional area of a placed form. One typical method for bracing a placed form involves the use of a kicker. However, positioning a kicker so that it is properly aligned to the form and so that the form is properly plumb frequently entails a time-intensive manual procedure. This procedure may further be complicated by the necessity of solidly securing the kicker to the form. While the time required to accomplish this for an individual kicker may not be significant, a typical construction job will require many kickers to be placed. This may cause the total time required to position kickers to become a significant expense. Existing methods of positioning kickers may not promote efficiency in accomplishing this task. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,427 requires a track to be installed on a form to which a kicker may be connected. U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,427 further does not allow the kicker to be placed against the form in a continuously adjustable manner. These techniques fail to appreciate the efficiency of connecting a kicker directly to a form.
An additional problem relates to methods for placing forms in corner locations and other locations that may need to be enclosed. Many techniques do not accommodate special conditions for corners of the like. For example, building methods involving fill material forms frequently require an opening between two forms to be closed. Generally, this can involve placing rebar into the opening, connecting to the rebar of the adjoining forms, and closing the opening with an inner panel and an outer panel. It may normally be the case that the rebar may be placed first and the form subsequently closed with an inner panel and an outer panel. However, high-rise building methods can present special circumstances. Specifically, it may be the case that an exterior wall located more than one story above the ground may be practically accessed only from the interior of the building. Many conventional systems may even require simultaneous placement of both the inner panel and the outer panel, which may limit the opportunity to place rebar into a space between the forms. Consequently, conventional building systems may fail to accommodate this aspect of high-rise construction.
One more problem may relate to further techniques for bracing forms. Many techniques do not accommodate special conditions in which the placement location of a brace may be important. For example, in high-rise construction, it may not be practical to place a brace on the exterior side of an exterior wall located more than one story above the ground. Consequently, conventional techniques that require a brace to be placed on both sides of a form may have limited application in high-rise building construction.
The foregoing problems regarding fill material building methods may represent a long-felt need for an effective solution. While implementing elements may have been available, actual attempts to meet this need may have been lacking to some degree. This may have been due to a failure of those having ordinary skill in the art to fully appreciate or understand the nature of the problems and challenges involved. As a result of this lack of understanding, attempts to meet these long-felt needs may have failed to effectively solve one or more of the problems or challenges here identified. These attempts may even have led away from the technical directions taken by the present invention and may even result in the achievements of the present invention being considered to some degree an unexpected result of the approach taken by some in the field.